Afforestation efforts bear fruit in Taklimakan Desert

The Taklimakan Desert, known as the "Sea of Death", has been completely encircled by a sand-blocking green belt that stretched 3,046 kilometers as of Thursday morning, in Hotan prefecture in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

The final 10-meter stretch of sand, which is 100 meters wide, was planted with saplings of desert poplar, rose willow, sacsaoul and other drought-enduring plants in Yutian, a county located on the southern edge of the desert. This marked the completion of the green belt's last segment of 285 km.

With an area of 337,600 square km and a circumference of 3,046 km, Taklimakan is the largest desert in China and the world's second-largest drifting desert.